Gran Turismo 7 “Power Pack” Paid DLC Now Available: New Races Including Endurance Events, Qualifying, and “Sophy 3.0”

[Lischynski]

That’s what 1,000,000 in just over half an hour?

I think the forced qualifying (albeit sped-up with fast forwarding) slows it down a bit, but still a nice way to earn some mindless credits

 

[OldandSlow]

I think the forced qualifying (albeit sped-up with fast forwarding) slows it down a bit, but still a nice way to earn some mindless credits

And get the daily mileage,too.

 

[jlbmel]

I have not played any PP events in a long time. I am going to start doing the Weekly Challenge. What is the shortest/fastest event?

 

[GTvsForza]

For me, The GTI races are the fastest to complete when using your own car.

 

[OldandSlow]

I have not played any PP events in a long time. I am going to start doing the Weekly Challenge. What is the shortest/fastest event?

Bump Drafting at Daytona. And use your own cars. Fast, easy, and good payout, too.

 

[Lischynski]

I have not played any PP events in a long time. I am going to start doing the Weekly Challenge. What is the shortest/fastest event?

The very first European path race, Eiger Nordwand GTI. It's three laps and there's no limit on PP, so you can use something like an Aston Martin Valkyrie or Ferrari VGT, as long as you fit sports hard tires. Three laps at about 1 minute and 3 seconds each.

 

[jlbmel]

Thanks everyone. I will try them this week.

 

[ArronWestley]

While it has its own set of flaws and frustrations, I find the Powerpack much more attractive than the standard catch-the-rabbit affair of base GT7 events.
And as you mention @Darrenersmit , it actually helps you improve your racecraft.

All races in the PP have their rabbits, it's literally the same as in the regular game, the only difference is you can qualify, and the only reason you can qualify is because the cars are more evenly matched. It's just a different brand of artificial.

Personally I prefer the regular game than a DLC in which the AI cars are sped up while you are slowed down if you choose the worse car. Not to mention the large inconsistency in difficulty.

Also, there's no "racecraft" to be improved when all races (except endurance) are sprints and many have no fuel/tire consumption. It's pretty much just push hard all the way until the end. No traffic management either, as, if you're good, you start in the front row anyway.

Praise the PP all you want, but not for its difficulty. This is actually one of its weakest points.

 

[Bonneville120]

Mental torture. Worst race in the entire game IMO. Just Spa left. Burnt out from endurance races tbh

 

[tonidavid5]

View attachment 1559949


Mental torture. Worst race in the entire game IMO. Just Spa left. Burnt out from endurance races tbh

Well, it's over now. Congrats anyway!
On to greener pastures. And when the itching comes back, you still have Spa left to tackle 😁

 

[Bonneville120]

Well, it's over now. Congrats anyway!
On to greener pastures. And when the itching comes back, you still have Spa left to tackle 😁

Once you've done a 24 hour race, an 8 hour race feels like what a 14 minute race used to feel like lol. I'm looking forward to Spa, should have that done in 2-3 days.
Just bought all the new DLC cars with the winnings plus finally finished a menu book by purchasing the Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Berlinetta. Still have 2 menu books to complete but the 2 cars I need to buy aren't in stock anywhere atm so just have to wait it out

 

[GTvsForza]

Down to the last hour and change for Le Mans. Through the whole race, it only rained one for an hour... better than nothing I guess. Hopefully Nurburgring will be more exciting.

 

[Bonneville120]

Made a start on Spa. Not sure what the go to strat was pre update but I'm having most success on softs and short shifting. Able to build a delta that way despite Serrano and Lopez getting more laps to a tank, I think over time it won't be enough for them to win. Not enjoying the new physics tbh. Worn softs feel grippier than new mediums which never was the case IME previously. Find myself turning the wheel 90 degrees far more often than I used to, because you get extra turn in despite the FFB telling you you've already surpassed peak grip and the tyres are letting go of the road

 

[Greycap]

Sophy 3.0 is a step in the right direction but the first lap charge and the fact it isn't punished enough for its mistakes mean there's a lot of room for improvement.

Just a shot in the dark, but I may have an idea about the first lap magic performance. It can't be proven as at the moment we can't see AI tyre temperatures anywhere but at the beginning of the race the player starts with, for example as checked in the GT300 races, racing hards at around 65°C while their optimal operating temperature is somewhere around 90°C. It takes about two laps to get them up there and coincidentally the AI's abnormally high pace seems to last about as long which to me sounds like they may have properly warmed up tyres from the get go. So it's not that they're actually charging harder, it's just that they may have full grip right from the start while we're still trying to get heat into the tyres.

 

[GTvsForza]

Finally finished...

 

[lilcat89]

That’s what 1,000,000 in just over half an hour?

I timed it at just under 12 minutes from entering race weekend to checkered flag, with a 9 minute race time. It’s only 450,000 per half hour, not close enough to replace the other grind races.

 

[05XR8]

I'll time my session. My 300ZX tops at 415kmh thanks to the new PP. I was doing 38s laps before the update. My first race after the update was going to be just over 7 minutes, but with both right side tyres completely useless on the last lap I coasted around the final turn.

 

[Bonneville120]

Figured out a strat to beat the 8hr Spa 2 chili after some trial and error.
First off it's a tough race without much room for error.
Mediums are a no go. They don't provide enough grip and once the fronts start to wear I was only getting 2:15-2:17.
You essentially need to be doing consistent 2:11-2:14's to offset the fact that both Lopez and Serrano can do significantly more laps before needing to refuel Vs you.
So what is working for me is:

• Fuel map 1, no short shifting
• Racing softs
• Never steer further than peak grip, so never allow the front tyres to start slipping. With the new physics this is obvious on a wheel because you will feel a 'clunk' while steering and suddenly feel a lot more vibration, and the tyres will be screeching. By never reaching this point you lose out on a tiny bit more steering angle, but the front tyres will wear a lot less. On a track like Spa with fast, sweeping bends, front end grip is essential.
• Coast more than you normally would around corners. Especially around Bruxelles and Double Gauche, then get on the power once the wheel is close to centre
• Make sure you hit Eau Rouge without going wide else the car will bounce all over the place and can lead to crashing
• I found -1 brake bias to be a happy middle ground. I prefer how the car responds with more front bias but it's too hard on the front tyres.

The rest is just traffic management as you'll be overtaking backmarkers A LOT. Be patient with it as I've spun out 3 times and all of them were due to being impatient behind a backmarker.
Eventually you will build a delta large enough so that even though you need to pit sooner than the 2 main AI's, you still come out ahead of them and the delta will only grow as you'll be on fresh softs and they will be on worn mediums.
Here's the state of the tyres just before pitting, and the laptimes you can still achieve despite how worn they are:

And here is a couple of laps after pitting:

I know Lopez will need to pit soon, and so it's a case of rinse and repeat.
Serrano was just as close behind as Lopez for a long while until he switched to Hards so he's pretty much out of the picture now. Assuming at some point Lopez does the same it will allow even more room for error. The car handles great though anyway, no need for TC as the post update softs have so much grip if you look after them.
No rain yet but might get a bit near the end. In which case I'll just follow the same strat just on IM's instead. Really fun race, the best of the endurance races IMO

 

[Monkey Man]

Fantastic overview @Bonneville120; thanks mate!

I can't see the pics 'cause my very-old computer doesn't do .webp. Anything important to see there?

Also, how many laps between pit stops?

 

[Bonneville120]

Fantastic overview @Bonneville120; thanks mate!

I can't see the pics 'cause my very-old computer doesn't do .webp. Anything important to see there?

Also, how many laps between pit stops?

Not really, just showing the state of the RS's just prior to pitting, if they wear much more than that the traction really drops off and the lap times suffer a lot.
I don't keep count of laps between pitting, I just run the car until only 1 lap remains on the estimated range. I think it comes to 13 laps but will try to remember to keep count as I'll probably finish the race today

 

[Bonneville120]

Just checked. 13 laps including the outlap, with 0.8 laps of range left. You could probably do 14 laps if you short shift for a lap or 2 but I don't think it's worth it as the grip really drops off when they wear much more than the photo

 

[Bonneville120]

Got it done. Annoyingly had to pit with like 10 minutes left, just put enough fuel in for 5 laps and called it good. The strat works well. The only other bit of advice to give is to avoid getting the tyres on the green edges of the track. The red and yellow bumper strips are fine but you can easily bin it on the green parts. That's a new thing post update and I like it, prevents track limit abuse. The weather threatened rain but it never came.

5 extra pit stops Vs the 2 main threats. Lol @ Drumont and Gallo though.
Certainly not the first to do it, but happy I've done it:

Overall I'd rate the power pack 7/10.
Pros: Good rewards, credits just for buying it, varied races, challenging events, endurance races, better AI, better progression system.
Cons: Inconsistent and downright ridiculous balancing at times (some of which has been fixed in recent updates), not enough longer events, fuel and tyre wear is a nothingburger for most races, chili cars not varied enough (using the same car for multiple events), no reward for doing 2 chili on every event.

I'd have liked more 30-60 minute events where fuel and tyres actually mattered outside of endurance events. But it's still good value for money when you consider that there is 62 hours of playtime in the endurance races alone.

 

[Fezzik]

Ok I'm going to attempt the Suzuka endurance. Please can someone remind me how the in-race save system currently works?

 

[Famine]

Ok I'm going to attempt the Suzuka endurance. Please can someone remind me how the in-race save system currently works?

It doesn't

Basically if the game is forced to shut-down mid-race - power cut, loss of internet, console crash - it resumes the race the lap before the last completed lap with a mimic of a red-flag: all lead-lap gaps eliminated, tyres changed to fresh set of the last tyres you had, fuel load remains as it was at the time.

You can't really manually save, but you can make it happen by forcing the game or console to shut down directly from the PlayStation home menu, or yanking the power (do not) or LAN cables.

 

[Fezzik]

It doesn't

Basically if the game is forced to shut-down mid-race - power cut, loss of internet, console crash - it resumes the race the lap before the last completed lap with a mimic of a red-flag: all lead-lap gaps eliminated, tyres changed to fresh set of the last tyres you had, fuel load remains as it was at the time.

You can't really manually save, but you can make it happen by forcing the game or console to shut down directly from the PlayStation home menu, or yanking the power (do not) or LAN cables.

Gotcha. So pause, home screen, close game.

 

[tonidavid5]

Got it done. Annoyingly had to pit with like 10 minutes left, just put enough fuel in for 5 laps and called it good. The strat works well. The only other bit of advice to give is to avoid getting the tyres on the green edges of the track. The red and yellow bumper strips are fine but you can easily bin it on the green parts. That's a new thing post update and I like it, prevents track limit abuse. The weather threatened rain but it never came.
View attachment 1560652
View attachment 1560653
View attachment 1560654
View attachment 1560655
5 extra pit stops Vs the 2 main threats. Lol @ Drumont and Gallo though.
Certainly not the first to do it, but happy I've done it:
View attachment 1560656


Overall I'd rate the power pack 7/10.
Pros: Good rewards, credits just for buying it, varied races, challenging events, endurance races, better AI, better progression system.
Cons: Inconsistent and downright ridiculous balancing at times (some of which has been fixed in recent updates), not enough longer events, fuel and tyre wear is a nothingburger for most races, chili cars not varied enough (using the same car for multiple events), no reward for doing 2 chili on every event.

I'd have liked more 30-60 minute events where fuel and tyres actually mattered outside of endurance events. But it's still good value for money when you consider that there is 62 hours of playtime in the endurance races alone.

Congrats! Not a small feat, completing all the endurance races.

Thanks for sharing all the insights, tips, debriefings and even your own mid-race mind rumblings. 😅

I doubt I ever have the time to do the 24h enduros but can see myself giving it a go to the Spa 8h, one of my fave circuits. More so after you ranking it top of the four.

 

[lilcat89]

Has anyone else noticed that the Sophy AI is a bit more "all over the place"? I have mostly done the Daytona Bump-Drafting race, even in other ones, Sophy's car placement is worse. It seems to me that they are less aware of their surroundings that before the update.

 

[Bonneville120]

Congrats! Not a small feat, completing all the endurance races.

Thanks for sharing all the insights, tips, debriefings and even your own mid-race mind rumblings. 😅

I doubt I ever have the time to do the 24h enduros but can see myself giving it a go to the Spa 8h, one of my fave circuits. More so after you ranking it top of the four.

You can do the endurance races in your own time. Just do an hour here or there and close the game. Once you load GT7 again you can do other races or race online etc, the save for the endurance race remains until you next choose to do a bit more. Crap, vague system but it does work. I had to do it once during Le Mans when GT7 updated itself.

 

[OldandSlow]

The PP limit has been raised to 730 from 720 in the Bump Drafting race at Daytona.

 

[seeayesix]

I bought the PP this weekend, and with the new physics, the two chili EF Civic is super sweet to drive. I'd recommend anyone to start with the EF and learn how to drive it, because it is much more delicate than the no-chili and one-chili Civic.

Enjoying the PP a lot so far and I'm happy I timed it so well with the 1.71 patch